


Stop Holding Your Breath

by Tortellini



Series: JeanMarco Month 2k17 [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Adolescent Sexuality, Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Apocalypse, Best Friends, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Comfort/Angst, Dead Marco Bott, Death, Denial, Denial of Feelings, Developing Friendships, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Feels, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Heavy Angst, Hurt, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, I mean, Jeanmarco Month, Light Angst, M/M, Male Friendship, Marco Bott/Jean Kirstein-centric, Minor Violence, POV Jean Kirstein, Past Violence, Prompt Fic, Sad, Sad Ending, Self-Denial, Sexuality, Sexuality Crisis, Violence, Wordcount: 500-1.000, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombie Marco Bott
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-10 16:22:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11130378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tortellini/pseuds/Tortellini
Summary: JeanMarco Month, Day 1 (June 7): Reunion/Fate(Zombie Apocalypse AU, "Survey Corpse") In the course of only a few days, the world as Jean Kirschtein and his friends knew completely fell apart. The dead don't stay dead--and worst of all, that includes Jean's little sister Ella. Now Jean must try to survive and avoid the smothering guilt he feels, and the only person he trusts is a kid named Marco. But Marco has his own issues himself...just not in the same way Jean does.





	Stop Holding Your Breath

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Reunion/Fate

_"Jean? Jean!"_

_Everything was black around Jean Kirschtein, and sort of hard to breathe in. The words in his head echoed, and other than that the only sound was his heartbeat in the bottom of his throat, his soft, ragged breath. On some level he knew he was dreaming. It should've comforted him; but it didn't, not at all._

_"Ella?" Jean croaked. This wasn't real, it couldn't be. He wanted to block it out. He wanted to sleep._

_"Jean, will you help me?" The little girl's voice was no older than nine or ten; sweet, but with an odd tone of anxiousness. "I lost something in the bathroom--will you help me look for it?"_

_"Ella," Jean's voice cracked. "N-no, don't, please--"_

_"I-I was wandering by myself... Where's Mom, Jean? Where's Dad? ...where were you? You said you'd always be there for me, big brother... Where were you when the world went red?"_

_"Ella--"_

_"Now I'm trapped in here. It's so dark, Jean, and I'm scared--I'm just **so hungry**."_

Jean sat up with a gasp. He didn't quite scream: he still had an image to keep up after all, no matter how halfhearted it seemed to be. Besides, even if he didn't talk about it that much, he knew deep down that the others he was traveling with would probably understand. After all, everyone had gone through unspeakable horror the last couple of days. With a sigh though, he laid back down. Everyone else was asleep; there wasn't even anyone to tell if he wanted to. Though the only person he would even consider himself close to would be Marco.

"Hey. Marco are you--?" Was he even awake?

No response though. Weird. He wasn't that heavy of a sleeper, not usually.

"Annie?" He rolled onto his side, eyebrows furrowed. "Where's Marco--?"

No response from her either. Neither of them were there. He was starting to get a really, really bad feeling deep down in his chest. Oh shit, fuck--he'd told him before, he'd _told_ him that Annie was bad news! Jean himself had never trusted her from the beginning! She'd done something, he knew she had--

...or you know, Marco could just be in the bathroom or something. There was a chance he could just be overreacting.

But hey, now that he knew he was missing, he would not be able to go back to sleep. He probably wouldn't in the first place because of that nightmare he'd had earlier anyway. So with a sigh and one last hopeful glance to see if anyone else was awake (they weren't), he got up.

The movie theater the bunch of them had taken refuge in was large, and dark...eerily like his dream sort of, but other than that there weren't any similarities. Jean was grateful for that. But he couldn't even see anything! Honestly, it was pretty much a waste of time... He sighed and was about to turn around and head back when he saw something. His body freezing, Jean bent down slightly.

"Oh my god," he mumbled to himself. "Is that blood?! Fuck--!"

He turned a corner, palms starting to sweat a little bit more, and opened up a door. He had to find him. Hell, he had to find whoever was bleeding! Even if it wasn't him...it meant someone, one of their group, was hurt.

"Marco?" He called out, trying to steady his voice. Trying to give himself false hope. "Marco?!"

There was no response, not right away, and no familiar lilt that Marco spoke with. In fact, there weren't any words at all. The sounds that came then were garbled, as if someone was trying to scream but couldn't. There was so much blood... Jean dropped to his knees in front of him. Oh god, he was still alive, but his mouth-- "Marco--oh shit, oh shit--hey, hey look at me, everything's fine, fine--" Marco's brown eyes were wide and full of terror, olive skin now white and stained with his own blood. And Jean only had his tshirt to try and staunch the steady flow of blood coming from--oh fuck, why was it coming from his mouth like that?! "I've got you, okay? Stay with me, okay?!" His voice shook so hard, but Marco was shaking harder in his arms. "Oh my god, oh god, what happened? Somebody!" he rose his voice then. Would anybody even hear?! "Somebody please, help!"

But no one was coming. Jean could feel the warm blood soaking his jeans, his arms.

"You weren't bitten, were you?!" But what else could've done this to him...? His own blood was cold. "Oh god, oh no please, don't do this to me, don't do this to me please--"

Marco was in no shape to answer. Jean understood that. He knew it was too late by now, and sobbed with him held against his chest. Suddenly, Marco's breathing changed. He got raspier, more malevolent, more...dead. If he was in his right mind he'd have pushed him away. This wasn't Marco anymore, this wasn't his best friend, this was--this was a monster.

"No...no!"

> And just like that, Marco Bodt was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> Check out the Survey Corpse Youtube series, which I take no credit of!! Episode 1:
> 
> https://youtu.be/uiiERrLCWyU
> 
> And then episode 13 (where this takes place):
> 
> https://youtu.be/R2_xMC3ELXc


End file.
